Accordion Books

Well, it was about as close to a snow day as we get today. Our buses were cancelled today, and because I teach at a fairly rural school, that meant I only had 6 students in my class ... yep, 6. Don't ask me why they don't cancel school when the buses are off the road - I have no answer for this. Anyhow, it was a GREAT day with them. I got them started on a new art project, got my DRA testing done with 6 that were there (and got prepped for the rest of the students), worked on their orals, and got in some more practice with metric conversions. The grade 7/8 teacher and myself paired up the classes for two full blocks, so we each got some time to ourselves in the classroom, too. YAY!

With the extra time I had today, I was able to get a lot of marking done in their reading notebooks. We're still studying inferring with our Chris Van Allsburg unit.Last week we read The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For our weekly summative task, I decided to do a foldable - the kids love them in math, so I figured they'd love them in language, as well. I had them make an accordion book. They had to recreate the cover, using the same style of illustrations Chris Van Allsburg used in the book. For the inside panels they had to cover:

a summary of the story

character traits for two characters (with supporting evidence)

setting (both place and time - inferred from the story)

a reflection based on the question, "How did the main character's feelings change throughout the story?" (they also had to include supporting evidence from the text).

This was a nice switch from the usual written summary and reflection - and I was right, the kids loved making them (well, love might be a strong word, but they definitely liked them). ;)

14 comments:

Hey Jen! I love those days that happen once in a blue moon! Glad you got so much stuff done, awesome. Thanks for sharing this...I think I told you last time we are doing an author study later this year and I'm so excited to try what you have shared. Thanks again!Kristen

When I was student teaching, we had a super cold day with severe wind chills. They ended up letting everyone go home before lunchtime, but out of our 25 students, only 10 or so had come to school! It's strange how much more peaceful it felt. :)

Thanks, Bernrice. I'm always excited to share the work that my students complete (well, some of them, at least) ;)

Kristen - Van Allsburg is my FAVOURITE!!! I look forward to teaching this unit so much.

Jill - we never have a snow day - even in crazy blizzards we're expected to make a heroic effort to get to school. However, buses are pulled off the road at least a few times during the winter. Once the highways were closed while we were at school, and we ended up having to stay until long past 7 pm. That day ended up to be a lot of fun ... looooonnnnnggggg, but fun.

Thanks so much, ladies. I was really pleased with how they turned out. I've been doing a lot of foldables in math this year, but this was my first in language (but definitely not my last).Kathy, with a class like mine this year, hardly any kids is definitely a positive! ;)

I just wanted to tell you how awesome you are!! I bought and started your Chris Van Allsburg inferencing unit with my 5th grade reading classes yesterday. I have a rainbow of ability levels and they all loved it. They couldn't wait at the end of class yesterday to go home to tell their parents about the book we read and try to figure out what the "stone" actually is. What an awesome unit! We are going to complete the central theme diagram and start on the journal writing today. Thanks so much for all you do... It is definitely appreciated! :)

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Welcome to Runde's Room! I'm Jen, and I am passionate about teaching and sharing my upper grade classroom ideas and resources here on my blog. I've taught grades 5 - 8 for 13 years, and currently have a split grade 5/6 class. I love creating engaging, fun, and rigorous activities for my students that keep learning fun. I'm also a wife and a mom to three beautiful little girls, and love soaking up every single moment with them. Be sure to follow my blog to join me on my blogging journey.